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Related to: 'Rikin Parekh'

Hodder Children's Books

Iguana Boy Unmasks The Invisible Hero

James Bishop, Rikin Parekh

Contributors:

James Bishop, Rikin Parekh

One Boy. One Disappointing Superpower. Can Dylan prove his worth, or will he be saving cats from tress FOREVER? The hilarious new book in the Iguana Boy series. Great to read aloud with children of 5+ and perfect for newly independent readers of 7+.Dylan, AKA Iguana Boy, is determined to keep his identity under wraps - but when he overhears someone talking about Iguana Boy being the WORST superhero EVER, he is determined more than ever to prove his worth. Back at SuperHero HQ Dylan and his lively iguanas are set to work on more CITD missions (saving cats from trees). Luckily, it just so happens that the trees are situated next to prime spots for criminal activity. But it's not easy trying to succeed on ridiculously hard missions like chasing-down a five year-old who keeps farting on members of the public. But then Dylan's luck starts to change - who exactly is helping Dylan and his iguana pals? It's time for Iguana Boy to unmask ... The Invisible Hero!

Iguana Boy Saves the World With a Triple Cheese Pizza

James Bishop, Rikin Parekh

Contributors:

James Bishop, Rikin Parekh

One boy. One disappointing superpower. Can Dylan tame a bunch of hyper iguanas and come up with a masterful plan to save the WORLD? Yeah, probably ... but he's going to need a MASSIVE cheese pizza. Perfect for fans of Tom Gates, Future Ratboy and My Brother is a Superhero.Dylan has wanted a superpower for as long as he can remember, especially since his brother and sister have got really cool ones. But when his wish finally comes true, Dylan is MIGHTILY disappointed. For Dylan has become ... Iguana Boy. He can talk to Iguanas ... RUBBISH!And when supervillain Celina Shufflebottom kidnaps all the superheroes in London, Dylan must work out how to use his new team of chatty iguanas to save the day. He's going to have to think outside the box, (the pizza box), if he's going to become the hero he's always dreamed of. If he's going to make Iguana Boy cool.'HILARIOUS and so silly - superheroes, reptiles and pizza ... AWESOME, why didn't I think of that?!' Tom Fletcher(P) Hachette Children's Group 2018

The Peach Boy

Enid Richemont, Andy Catling

Contributors:

Enid Richemont, Andy Catling

In this retelling of a famous Japanese legend, we meet Momotaro, a boy whose mother found him inside a peach. When ogres attack his village, Momotaro bravely sets out to drive them away - with the help of his friends and some of his mother's strength-giving cakes...Reading Champion offers independent reading books for children to practise and reinforce their developing reading skills.Fantastic, original stories are accompanied by engaging artwork and a reading activity. Each book has been carefully graded so that it can be matched to a child's reading ability, encouraging reading for pleasure.

Double Dragons

Enid Richemont

Iguana Boy vs. The 30 Second Thief

James Bishop, Rikin Parekh

Contributors:

James Bishop, Rikin Parekh

One boy. One disappointing superpower. Can Dylan and his bunch of hyper iguanas make a lasting impression on the superhero collective, run by Ron Strongman, or will he be laughed out of town?He might have the lamest superpower ever but Dylan, AKA Iguana Boy, has proven himself worthy enough to be accepted into the superhero collective. Dylan is excited and his iguanas are hyper. Recipe for success, RIGHT?Iguana Boy and his team of iguanas eagerly await their orders to SAVE THE WORLD. But CEO of the Superhero Collective Ron Strongman doesn't have time for lowly superheroes. Dylan will have to find his own way to get to the top, or else he will be saving silly cats from trees FOREVER. When a new villain is causing chaos across London, Dylan can't believe his luck... this is his chance. Can Iguana Boy bring Repeat Offender to justice ... In 30 seconds or less!

A Soldier, A Dog and A Boy

Libby Hathorn, Phil Lesnie

Arabella's Web

Enid Richemont, Gabriele Antonini

Contributors:

Enid Richemont, Gabriele Antonini

Arabella the spider tries hard to spin the perfect web, but things keep going wrong! Will she ever catch anything for dinner?The Tadpoles series contains fun, original stories told in under 80 words and accompanied by bright illustrations, perfect for beginner readers.

Michael Rosen

Michael Wayne Rosen (born 7 May 1946)[1] is a broadcaster, children's novelist and poet and the author of 140 books. He was appointed as the fifth Children's Laureate in June 2007, succeeding Jacqueline Wilson, and held this honour until 2009.
Michael Rosen was born in Harrow, London. The family background is Jewish, "from the Jewish East End tradition" as Rosen puts it.[2] Rosen's father Harold (1919–2008) was born in Brockton, Massachusetts, in the United States to Communist parents and settled in the East End of London at the age of two, when his mother returned to the country of her birth.[3] While a member of the Young Communist League he met Connie Isakofsky, his future wife and Michael Rosen's mother, in 1935. Harold was a secondary school teacher before becoming a professor of English at the Institute of Education, London,[4] and Connie a primary school teacher before becoming a training college lecturer; she also broadcast for the BBC. Producing a programme featuring poetry, she persuaded her son to write for it, and used some of the material he submitted.[5] Their ancestors came from Poland, Russia and Romania.[2] Michael Rosen was brought up in Pinner, Middlesex, and went to various state schools in Pinner, Harrow, and then Watford Grammar School for Boys,[2] and, having discovered the range of Jonathan Miller, thought: "Wouldn't it be wonderful to know all about science, and know all about art, and be funny and urbane and all that."[6] Subsequently, in his own words:
After graduating from Wadham College, Oxford, in 1969, Rosen became a graduate trainee at the BBC. Among the work that he did while there in the 1970s was presenting a series on BBC Schools television called WALRUS (Write And Learn, Read, Understand, Speak). He was also scriptwriter on the children's reading series Sam on Boffs' Island. But Rosen found working for the corporation frustrating: "Their view of 'educational' was narrow. The machine had decided this was the direction to take. Your own creativity was down the spout."[7]
Despite previously having made no secret of his radical politics he was asked to go freelance in 1972, though in practice he was sacked despite several departments of the BBC wishing to employ him. In common with the China expert and journalist Isabel Hilton among several others at this time, Rosen had failed the vetting procedures which were then in operation. This long-standing practice was only revealed in 1985.[8]
In 1974 Mind Your Own Business, his first book of poetry for children, was published. In due course, Rosen established himself with his collections of humorous verse for children, including Wouldn't You Like to Know, You Tell Me and Quick Let's Get Out of Here.
Educationalist Morag Styles has described Rosen as "one of the most significant figures in contemporary children's poetry". He was, says Styles, one of the first poets "to draw closely on his own childhood experiences ... and to 'tell it as it was' in the ordinary language children actually use".[7]
Rosen played a key role in opening up children's access to poetry: both through his own writing and with important anthologies such as Culture Shock. He was one of the first poets to make visits to schools throughout the UK and further afield in Australia, Canada and Singapore.[7] His tours continue to enthuse and engage school children about poetry in the present.[9] In 1993, he gained an M.A. in Children's Literature from the University of Reading; he also holds a Ph.D. from the University of North London.[10]
He is well established as a broadcaster, presenting a range of documentary features on British radio. He is the presenter of BBC Radio 4's regular magazine programme Word of Mouth which looks at the English language and the way it is used.[11]
The English Association has given Michael Rosen's Sad Book an Exceptional Award for the Best Children's Illustrated Books of 2004, in the 4–11 age range. The book was written by Michael Rosen and illustrated by Quentin Blake. It deals in part with bereavement, and followed the publication of Carrying the Elephant: A Memoir of Love and Loss which was published in November 2002 after the death of his son Eddie, who features as a child in much of his earlier poetry. In 2004, Rosen published This Is Not My Nose: A Memoir of Illness and Recovery, an account of his ten years with undiagnosed hypothyroidism; a course of drugs in 1981 alleviated the condition.[7]
Rosen has also been involved in campaigning around issues of education and for the Palestinian cause. He has written columns for the newspaper of the Socialist Workers Party (Socialist Worker)[12] and spoken at their conferences.[13] He has also stood for election in June 2004 in London as a Respect Coalition candidate.[5] He is also a supporter of the Republic campaign.[14]
Rosen was the subject of the BBC Radio 4's Desert Island Discs programme on 6 August 2006.[15]
He is currently Visiting Professor of Children's Literature at Birkbeck, University of London, where he teaches Children's Literature and has devised an MA in Children's Literature, which commenced in October 2010.[16]
In August 2010 Rosen contributed to an eBook collection of political poems entitled Emergency Verse - Poetry in Defence of the Welfare State edited by Alan Morrison[17]
In 2011, he collaborated with his wife, Emma-Louise Williams to produce the film 'Under the Cranes'; he provided the original screenplay (a 'play for voices' called 'Hackney Streets') which Williams took as a basis with which to direct the film. It premiered at the Rio Cinema, Dalston, London on April 30, 2011 as part of the East End Film Festival[18]
Rosen was appointed as the fifth Children's Laureate in June 2007, succeeding Jacqueline Wilson,[19] and held this honour till 9 June 2009, being succeeded by Anthony Browne.[20] Rosen signed off from the Laureateship with an article in The Guardian,[21] in which he said, poignantly: "Sometimes when I sit with children when they have the space to talk and write about ... things, I have the feeling that I am privileged to be the kind of person who is asked to be part of it".
In summer 2007, Rosen was awarded an Honorary D.Litt at the University of Exeter.[22]
On 19 January 2008, Rosen was presented with an Honorary Doctorate of Letters from the Tavistock and Portman NHS Trust and the University of East London at a ceremony held at the Institute of Education.[23]
On 5 November 2008, he was presented with an Honorary Masters degree at the University of Worcester.[24]
On 18 November 2008, he was presented with the Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (Knight of the Order of Arts and Literature) by the Government of France at the French Ambassador's residence in London.[25]
On 2 April 2010 he was given the Fred and Anne Jarvis Award by the National Union of Teachers for "campaigning for education".[26]
On 22 July 2010, Michael Rosen was awarded an honorary degree of Doctor of Education (DEd) by Nottingham Trent University.[27]
On April 5, 2011, he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate at the Institute of Education, University of London.[28]
On 20 July 2011, Michael Rosen was awarded the honorary degree of Doctor of Letters by the University of the West of England.[29]
Rosen has been married three times, and is the father of five children and two stepchildren. With his first partner, Susannah, he had two sons: Joe (born 1976) and Eddie (born 1980, died 1999). His second partner, whom he does not name, had two daughters from her previous relationship: Naomi (born 1978) and Laura (born 1983).[30] He had one son with her: Isaac (born 1987). Rosen currently lives in Dalston, Hackney, London with his wife Emma-Louise Williams and their two children, Elsie (born 2001) and Emile (born 2004).[31][32]

Enid Blyton

Enid Mary Blyton (11 August 1897 – 28 November 1968) was a Britishchildren's writer also known as Mary Pollock.
She is noted for numerous series of books based on recurring characters and designed for different age groups. Her books have enjoyed huge success in many parts of the world, and have sold over 600 million copies.[1]
One of Blyton's most widely known characters is Noddy, intended for early years readers. However, her main work is the genre of young readers' novels in which children have their own adventures with minimal adult help. Series of this type include the Famous Five (21 novels, 1942–1963, based on four children and their dog), the Five Find-Outers and Dog, (15 novels, 1943–1961, where five children regularly outwit the local police) as well as The Secret Seven (15 novels, 1949–1963, a society of seven children who solve various mysteries).
Her work involves children's adventure stories, and fantasy, sometimes involving magic. Her books were and still are enormously popular throughout the Commonwealth and across most of the globe. Her work has been translated into nearly 90 languages.
Blyton's literary output was of an estimated 800 books over roughly 40 years. Chorion Limited of London now owns and handles the intellectual properties and character brands of Blyton's Noddy and the well known series the Famous Five.
Blyton was born on 11 August 1897 at 354 Lordship Lane, East Dulwich, London, England, the eldest child of Thomas Carey Blyton (1870–1920), a salesman of cutlery, and his wife, Theresa Mary Harrison Blyton (1874–1950). There were two younger brothers, Hanly (1899–1983) and Carey (1902–1976), who were born after the family had moved to the nearby suburb of Beckenham—in Oakwood Avenue. Blyton adored her father and was devastated after he left the family to live with another woman; this has often been cited as the reason behind her emotional immaturity. Blyton and her mother did not have a good relationship, and later in life, Blyton claimed to others that her mother was dead. After both her parents did die, Blyton attended neither of their funerals.
From 1907 to 1915, Blyton was educated at St. Christopher's School in Beckenham, leaving as head girl. She enjoyed physical activities along with some academic work, but not maths.
Blyton was a talented pianist, but gave up her musical studies when she trained as a teacher at Ipswich High School.[2] She taught for five years at Bickley, Surbiton and Chessington, writing in her spare time. Her first book, Child Whispers, a collection of poems, was published in 1922. On 28 August 1924 Blyton married Major Hugh Alexander Pollock, DSO (1888–1971), editor of the book department in the publishing firm of George Newnes, which published two of her books that year. The couple moved to Bourne End, Buckinghamshire (Peterswood in her books).[3] Eventually they moved to a house in Beaconsfield, named Green Hedges by Blyton's readers following a competition in Sunny Stories. They had two children: Gillian Mary Baverstock (15 July 1931 – 24 June 2007) and Imogen Mary Smallwood (born 27 October 1935).
In the mid-1930s Blyton experienced a spiritual crisis, but she decided against converting to Roman Catholicism from the Church of England because she had felt it was "too restricting". Although she rarely attended church services, she saw that her two daughters were baptised into the Anglican faith and went to the local Sunday School.
Since her death in 1968 and the publication of her daughter Imogen's autobiography, A Childhood at Green Hedges, Blyton has emerged as an emotionally immature, unstable and often malicious figure. By 1939 her marriage to Pollock was in difficulties, and she began a series of affairs. In 1941 she met Kenneth Fraser Darrell Waters, a London surgeon with whom she began a relationship. During her divorce, Blyton blackmailed Pollock into taking full blame for the failure of the marriage, knowing that exposure of her adultery would ruin her public image. She promised that if he admitted to charges of infidelity, she would allow him unlimited access to their daughters. However, after the divorce, Pollock was forbidden to contact his daughters, and Blyton ensured he was unable to find work in publishing afterwards. He turned to drinking heavily and was forced to petition for bankruptcy.
Blyton and Darrell Waters married at the City of Westminster Register Office on 20 October 1943, and she subsequently changed the surname of her two daughters to Darrell Waters. Pollock remarried thereafter. Blyton's second marriage was very happy and, as far as her public image was concerned, she moved smoothly into her role as a devoted doctor's wife, living with him and her two daughters at Green Hedges.
Blyton's husband died in 1967. During the following months, she became increasingly ill. Afflicted by Alzheimer's disease, Blyton was moved into a nursing home three months before her death; she died at the Greenways Nursing Home, London, on 28 November 1968, aged 71 years and was cremated at the Golders Green Crematorium where her ashes remain.
Blyton's home, Green Hedges, was sold in 1971 and demolished in 1973. The area where Green Hedges once stood is now occupied by houses and a street called Blyton Close. A blue plaque commemorates Blyton at Hook Road in Chessington, where she lived from 1920-4. [4] Her daughter Imogen has been quoted as saying "The truth is Enid Blyton was arrogant, insecure, pretentious, very skilled at putting difficult or unpleasant things out of her mind, and without a trace of maternal instinct. As a child, I viewed her as a rather strict authority. As an adult I pitied her."[5] Elder daughter, Gillian, did not hold the same view toward their mother, and Imogen's biography of Blyton contains a foreword by Gillian to the effect that her memories of childhood with Enid Blyton were mainly happy ones.
The Red Story Book, The Green Story Book, The Blue Story Book, Bedtime Stories are some other books by Enid Blyton.
Blyton wrote hundreds of other books for young and older children: novels, story collections and some non-fiction. She also filled a large number of magazine pages, particularly the long-running Sunny Stories which were immensely popular among younger children.
She used a pseudonym Mary Pollock for a few titles (middle name plus first married name). The last volumes in her most famous series were published in 1963. Many books still appeared after that, but were mainly story books made up from recycled work.
Blyton also wrote numerous books on nature and Biblical themes. Her story The Land of Far-Beyond is a Christian parable along the lines of John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress, with modern children as the central characters. She also produced retellings of Old Testament and New Testament stories.
Enid Blyton was a prolific author of short stories. These were first published, for the most part, in Sunny Stories, an Enid Blyton magazine, or other children's papers.
She also used to explore the forests when she was a little girl and wrote of her dreams in a notebook kept by her bedside.
In February 2011, the manuscript of a previously unknown Blyton novel, Mr Tumpy's Caravan, was discovered in a collection of her papers which had been auctioned in 2010[6] following the death of her elder daughter in 2007.[7]
Blyton books are generally split into three types. One involves ordinary children in extraordinary situations, having adventures, solving crimes, or otherwise finding themselves in unusual circumstances. Examples include the Famous Five and Secret Seven, and the Adventure series.
The second and more conventional type is the boarding school story; the plots of these have more emphasis on the day-to-day life at school. This is the world of the midnight feast, the practical joke, and the social interaction of the various types of character. Examples of this type are the Malory Towers stories, the St Clare's series, and the Naughtiest Girl books and are typical of the times — many comics of the day also contained similar types of story.
The third type is the fantastical. Children are typically transported into a magical world in which they meet fairies, goblins, elves, pixies, or other fantasy creatures. Examples of this type are the Wishing-Chair books and The Faraway Tree. In many of her short stories, toys are shown to come alive when humans are not around.
Enid Blyton's status as a bestselling author is in spite of disapproval of her works from various perspectives, which has led to altered reprints of the books and withdrawals or “bans” from libraries. In the 1990s, Chorion, the owners of Blyton's works, edited her books to remove passages that were deemed racist or sexist.[8] The children’s author Anne Fine presented an overview of the concerns about Blyton's work and responses to them on BBC Radio 4 in November 2008, in which she noted the “drip, drip, drip of disapproval” associated with the books.[9][10]
It was frequently reported (in the 1950s and also from the 1980s onwards) that various children's libraries removed some of Blyton's works from the shelves. The history of such "Blyton bans" is confused. Some librarians certainly at times felt that Blyton's restricted use of language, a conscious product of her teaching background, militated against appreciation of more literary qualities. There was some precedent in the treatment of L. Frank Baum's Oz books (and the many sequels by others) by librarians in the United States in the 1930s. There were numerous critical comments about Blyton: claiming that her vocabulary was too limited, that she presented too rosy a view of the world, even suggestions that little Noddy's relationship with Big Ears was "suspect", that he was a poor role model for boys because he sometimes wept when frustrated and the laws were politically incorrect.
A careful account of anti-Blyton attacks is given in Chapter 4 of Robert Druce's This Day Our Daily Fictions. The British Journal of Education in 1955 carried a piece by Janice Dohn, an American children's librarian, considering Blyton's writing together with authors of formula fiction, and making negative comments about Blyton's devices and tone. A 1958 article in Encounter by Colin Welch, directed against the Noddy character, was reprinted in a New Zealand librarians' periodical. This gave rise to the first rumour of a New Zealand "library ban" on Blyton's books, a recurrent press canard. Policy on buying and stocking Blyton's books by British public libraries drew attention in newspaper reports from the early 1960s to the end of the 1970s, as local decisions were made by a London borough, Birmingham, Nottingham and other central libraries.
There is no evidence that her books' popularity ever suffered: her response to criticism is said to be that she was not interested in the views of critics aged over 12.[11] Blyton was defended by populist journalists, and others.
In November 2009 it was revealed in the British press that the BBC had a longstanding ban on dramatising Blyton's books on the radio from the 1930s to the 1950s. Letters and memos from the BBC Archive show that producers and executives at the time described Blyton as a "tenacious second-rater" who wrote "stilted and longwinded" books which were not suitable to be broadcast. In 1936 Blyton wrote to the BBC suggesting herself as a broadcaster, pointing out that she had "written probably more books than any other writer." She was turned down. In 1938, Blyton's husband, Hugh Pollock, wrote to Sir John Reith, the then Director General of the BBC, pointing out that his wife was receiving letters from children from all parts of the British Empire, and that she should be allowed to speak to them via the radio. Jean E. Sutcliffe, of the BBC's schools broadcast department wrote, "Her stories...haven't much literary value. There is rather a lot of the Pink-winky-Doodle-doodle Dum-dumm type of name (and lots of pixies) in the original tales."[12][13]
Enid Blyton tried to get her work on the radio again in 1940, but her manuscript was once more turned down, the BBC employee who reviewed it writing, "This is really not good enough. Very little happens and the dialogue is so stilted and long-winded...It really is odd to think that this woman is a bestseller." Eventually, in 1954, Blyton's works appeared on air for the first time. Jean Sutcliffe wrote of Blyton's ability to churn out "mediocre material", and that "Her capacity to do so, amounts to genius...anyone else would have died of boredom long ago." Michael Rosen, the former Children's Laureate, said of the BBC's ban on Blyton, "...the quality of the writing itself was poor...it was felt that there was a lot of snobbery and racism in the writing...There is all sorts of stuff about oiks and lower orders."[12]
The books are very much of their time, particularly the titles published in the 1950s. They present the UK's class system — that is to say, "rough" versus "decent".[14] Many of Blyton's children's books similarly reflected negative stereotypes regarding gender, race, and class.
One incidence of altering this type of dated material might be the altering of a statement like "black as a nigger with soot" appearing in Five Go off to Camp.[15][16] At the time, "Negro" was the standard formal term and "nigger" a relatively common colloquialism. This is one of the most obvious targets for alteration in modern reprints, along with the replacement of golliwogs with teddy bears or goblins. Some of this responses by publishers to contemporary attitudes on racial stereotypes has itself drawn criticism from some who view it as tampering with an important piece of the history of children's literature. The Druce book brings up the case of The Little Black Doll (who wanted to be pink), which was turned on its head in a reprint. Also removed in deference to modern ethical attitudes are many casual references to slaves and to corporal punishment - The Faraway Tree's Dame Slap was changed to Dame Snap and several references to characters in the Malory Towers and St. Clare's series being spanked were changed to them being "scolded". Blyton's attitudes came under criticism during her working lifetime; a publisher rejected a story of hers in 1960, taking a negative literary view of it but also saying that "There is a faint but unattractive touch of old-fashioned xenophobia in the author's attitude to the thieves; they are 'foreign'...and this seems to be regarded as sufficient to explain their criminality."[17]
Similarly, some have suggested the depictions of boys and girls in her books were sexist. For example, a 2005 Guardian article[18] suggested that the Famous Five depicts a power struggle between Julian, Dick and George (Georgina), with the female characters either acting like boys or being heavily put-upon. Although the gender issues are more subjective than with some of the racial issues, it has been suggested that a new edition of the book will "address" these issues through alterations, which has led to the expression of nostalgia for the books and their lack of political correctness.[19] In the Secret Seven books, the girls are deliberately excluded from tasks such as investigating the villains' hideouts — in Go Ahead, Secret Seven, it is directly stated "'Certainly not,' said Peter, sounding very grown-up all of a sudden. 'This is a man's job, exploring that coal-hole'".[20] In "The Adventurous 4, the two girls are often sent to do the cooking and washing up for the two boys. In the Famous Five this is less often the case, except Anne doing it voluntarily most of the times, but in Five on a Hike Together, Julian gives similar orders to George: "You may look like a boy and behave like a boy, but you're a girl all the same. And like it or not, girls have got to be taken care of."[21]. Similarly, in "Five have a wonderful time", Anne says "I don't expect boys to tidy up and cook and do things like that but George ought to because she's a girl". To this, George replies "If only I'd been born a boy". This is perhaps the most prominent example of gender stereotyping in her books. It shows that the stereotypes were not just enforced by boys but accepted by girls too.
The story of Blyton's life was turned into a BBC film in 2009 with Helena Bonham Carter in the title role. Filming began in March 2009 and first aired in the United Kingdom on BBC Four on 16 November 2009, followed by a documentary on Enid Blyton. Matthew Macfadyen and Denis Lawson played Blyton's first husband, Hugh Pollock, and Blyton's second husband, Kenneth Darrell Waters, respectively.[22]

Emmy Laybourne

Emmy Laybourne is, in her own words, ‘a writer, teacher and a recovering character actress’ who lives in upstate New York with her husband ‘and two surprisingly well-mannered children’. Here she talks to Graham Marks, on Skype, about how she became a writer, the highs and lows of starting out on a writing career, and her novel, Monument 14.

Sarah Mussi

Sarah Mussi started out with every intention of following a carer as an artist; that did not turn out to be what happened, and now she is now an award-winning and critically acclaimed YA author - as well as being a teacher. Here she talks to Graham Marks about her fascinating and well-travelled life, and the story behind her latest novel, Siege…

An interview with Mick Inkpen

Mick Inkpen, the award-winning author/illustrator - known to his millions of readers world-wide as the creator of Kipper, Lullabyhullaballoo, The Blue Balloon, Penguin Small and of course Wibbly Pig – has two brand new Wibbly Pig books publishing in September: Wibbly Pig has 10 Balloons and Oh no Wibbly Pig, not a rabbit!. Here he talks to Graham Marks about this, that and quite a lot more...

Mick Inkpen

Mick Inkpen, the award-winning author/illustrator - known to his millions of readers world-wide as the creator of Kipper, Lullabyhullaballoo, The Blue Balloon, Penguin Small and of course Wibbly Pig – has two brand new Wibbly Pig books publishing in September: Wibbly Pig has 10 Balloons and Oh no Wibbly Pig, not a rabbit!. Here he talks to Graham Marks about this, that and quite a lot more...

Cressida Cowell

Cressida Cowell’s Hiccup books, which she also illustrates, are now published in over 30 countries around the world and the first book in the series, How to Train Your Dragon, has been made into an animated movie by DreamWorks; Cressida also writes and illustrates picture books. The eleventh title in the Hiccup Saga, How to Seize a Dragon’s Jewel, is published in September, and here she talks to Graham Marks about pretty much everything to do with writing a hit series…

Author Spotlight

Cressida Cowell’s Hiccup books, which she also illustrates, are now published in over 30 countries around the world and the first book in the series, How to Train Your Dragon, has been made into an animated movie by DreamWorks; Cressida also writes and illustrates picture books. The eleventh title in the Hiccup Saga, How to Seize a Dragon’s Jewel, is published in September, and here she talks to Graham Marks about pretty much everything to do with writing a hit series…

Kate O'Hearn

Kate O’Hearn is a larger-than-life author who was born in Toronto, Canada, but has since travelled the world – as well as working in the fashion and film industries - before making her home in England. Here she talks to Graham Marks about childhood adventures, both good and bad, and how she eventually became a writer of acclaimed fantasy novels. Prepare yourself…

Interview with Robert Muchamore

For official reasons the characters in Robert Muchamore’s award-winning Cherub and Henderson’s Boys series don’t exist. The man behind these worldwide bestsellers certainly does, and here he talks to Graham Marks about writing, research and how he came to create the shadowy, sometimes savage and very real world of Charles Henderson…

Robert Muchamore

For official reasons the characters in Robert Muchamore’s award-winning Cherub and Henderson’s Boys series don’t exist. The man behind these worldwide bestsellers certainly does, and here he talks to Graham Marks about writing, research and how he came to create the shadowy, sometimes savage and very real world of Charles Henderson…

Charlie Fletcher

Charlie Fletcher has written numerous screenplays, and is the author of the critically acclaimed Stoneheart trilogy. Here he talks to Graham Marks about the story so far, the differences between writing for screen and page, America, literary mash-ups, and of course his latest novel, Far Rockaway.

Saviour Pirotta

Saviour Pirotta (born 1958, Naxxar, Malta) is a children's book author based in England.[1]
The second of five brothers, he grew up speaking both English and Maltese. He attended Naxxar Primary School and later won a scholarship to St Aloysius' College (Malta), one of the most prestigious schools on the island. He developed a love of literature early on in life when he discovered the works of Maltese folklorist Manuel Magri, the legends of Father Peter Delia, the works of C.S. Lewis and a children's adventure story by local author Guze Galea called Ragel Bil-Ghaqal (A Serious Man). His first short novel, The Pirates of Pudding Beach, paid tribute to it. The author's parents, both extremely devout Catholics, discouraged his interest in the arts and censored most television programmes. The family did watch Italian television series, however, and the RAI adaptations of Emilio Salgari's novels about the Asian pirate Sandokan made a big impression on the young Pirotta, as did frequent reruns of neorealist classics, in particular Vittorio De Sica's Shoeshine and Miracle in Milan. Pirotta also cites as visual influences the works of legendary film animator Ray Harryhausen and Alexander Korda, who produced the 1940 fantasy film The Thief of Baghdad, starring the South Asian actor Sabu. Rare visits to the cinema to watch Biblical epics like Ben Hur and The Ten Commandments were also to prove of lasting influence, which later led to an interest in the sword and sandal genre of movies and historical novels, especially the works of Rosemary Sutcliff.
Having finished his secondary education at St. Aloysius, Pirotta enrolled in a hotel management course, but left during the second year, mainly due to bullying from fellow students, although during an interview with a local newspaper two years later he claimed that 'in a world where people are still dying of hunger and fighting for basic human rights, I don't want to waste my life deciding which wine goes with which fish.' He had a variety of jobs while attending a two year evening course at the Manoel Theatre Academy of Dramatic Arts, Malta's national drama school. While in his second year, he wrote a children's radio play which he sold to a local station for £5. After graduating, he directed various plays at the Manoel Theatre and helped set up Malta's first youth theatre company, for which he adapted and produced several works. By now he had decided that his future lay in writing and in October 1981, he moved to the UK. His first job was directing three short plays for Moonshine Community Arts Workshop in London, an off-shoot of Brian Way's pioneering Theatre Centre. He also wrote a children's play based on a Maltese folk tale which toured various venues around London, including the Oval House and Jacksons Lane Community Centre.[2] This brought him to the attention of the Commonwealth Institute, where he worked as a workshop leader and storyteller till 1989 alongside other artists from the Commonwealth including the Guyanese poet John Agard.
The children's play was subsequently published by Samuel French and Pirotta has since concentrated on writing. His first efforts were picture books but he soon moved into non-fiction, specialising in pirates and religious festivals. His Pirates and Treasure, published in the UK, the US, Russia and Sweden in 1995 is widely considered to be the first children's book about sea-robbers with a multi-cultural viewpoint. For a while he also wrote science books for the very young using the pen name Sam Godwin. A Seed In Need - a first look at life cycle of a flower - won him the 1998 English Association Award for best non-fiction picture book. After the success of his next two books, Turtle Bay and The Orchard Book of First Greek Myths, Pirotta decided to write solely under his own name.
Turtle Bay, published by Frances Lincoln in the UK and Farrar, Strauss, Giroux in the United States was selected by members of a book review panel appointed by the National Science Teachers Association (NSTA) and assembled in cooperation with The Children's Book Council (CBC) as a Notable Science Trade Book of 1998. He has since concentrated on retelling folktales, producing The Sleeping Princess with illustrator Emma Chichester Clarke in 2002; The Orchard Book Of First Greek Myths with Jan Lewis in 2003 (both books for Orchard Books, an imprint of Hachette Livre); Aesop's Fables [2006];Around the World in 80 Tales [2007], both illustrated by Richard Johnson and published by Kingfisher in the UK and the US. In 2008 he performed at the Edinburgh International Book Festival for the first time where his show was sold out.
He writes in English and his books are produced mainly for the English-speaking market but they have been successfully published by major companies in various countries, including the United States, Italy, France, Spain, Holland, Portugal, Rumania, Belgium, Sweden, Brazil, Thailand, Greece, Estonia, Poland, Russia and Korea.
The author is now a British citizen and lives in Saltaire, Yorkshire. He is very much committed to empowering children to write and still performs workshops and story-making sessions in schools around the UK. He is a member of the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators, the SCBWI and the Scattered Authors' Society.
In November 2010, Firebird was awarded an Aesop Accolade by the American Folklore Society. It shared the honour with Eric A. Kimmel's Joha Makes a Wish: A Middle Eastern Tale and Cloud Tea Monkeys by Mal Peet and Elspeth Graham.
ANTHOLOGIES
Storyworld [illustrated by Fiona Small], Blackie & Sons, 1988 [re-issued as Tales From Around the World in 1994]
Joy To The World - Christmas Stories from Around the Globe[illustrated by Sheila Moxley], Frances Lincoln/Harpercollins, 1998
The Sleeping Princess and other Fairy Tales from Grimm [illustrated by Emma Chichester Clark], Orchard Books 2002 [titled The MacElderry Book of Grimm's Fairy Tales in the US]
The Orchard Book Of First Greek Myths [illustrated by Jan Lewis], Orchard Books, 2003
Once Upon A World[illustrated by Alan Marks], Watts/Sea to Sea Publications, 2004
Aesop's Fables [illustrated by Richard Johnson], Kingfisher 2005
Around The World in 80 Tales [illustrated by Richard Johnson], Kingfisher 2007
Children's Stories from the Bible (illustrated by Ian Andrew and Anne Yvonne Gilbert), Templar 2008
The Giant Book of Giants, Egmont Books, October 2011
PICTURE BOOKS
Solomon's Secret [illustrated by Helen Cooper], Methuen/Dial 1989
Little Bird [illustrated by Steve Butler], Frances Lincoln/Tambourine 1992
Turtle Bay [illustrated by Nilesh Mistry], Frances Lincoln/Farrar Straus Giroux, 1998 [reissed as Turtle Watch, 2008]
Patrick Paints A Picture [Illustrated by Linz West], Frances Lincoln 2008
Firebird [illustrated by Catherine Hyde], Templar Sept 2010
FORTHCOMING BOOKS
The Orchard Book of Ballet Stories for the Very Young, Orchard Books, 2013
Grimm's Fairy Tales, a six-books series from Orchard Books, January 2012 October to March 2012